3 AI Habits That Are Quietly Eroding Your Influence

AI has been a game changer for many people in business. These tools are a great equaliser, allowing people to do a lot more, for a lot less, and a lot more quickly. And it’s a great help when it comes to brainstorming, building more efficient processes, or polishing up ideas or communications, things that used to take hours or even days.

But, when it comes to communications, our AI use is also coming at a cost, and that cost is our influence. The issue here isn’t the quality of the ideas, but the way they’re being delivered. Because communication, at its core, is about the transfer of meaning between two people. Not just information, but meaning. 

Why meaning leads to influence

Meaning comes when we go through the process of taking something internal, whether that’s a thought, an idea, or a feeling, and express it in a way that another person can understand, interpret, and respond to. That response is what completes the communication loop. Without it, communication hasn’t really happened.

This is why communication is inherently human. Because how we express and how we respond – in other words, both sides of the communication loop – are shaped by more than just information. They’re shaped by context, emotion, tone, humour, timing, relationships, vulnerability, and much more. The same words can land in completely different ways depending on who says them, how they say them, even when they say them, and of course, who is receiving them. 

In your work, you need influence. You need to be able to share your convictions and ideas with others and inspire action. That’s because the goal for your communications is impact. 

But when we turn over our comms to AI, we lose something important. We lose the us. And when we lose the us in our comms, we lose context, emotion, vulnerability, and more. The words might still be technically correct, and to you they may even ‘sound better’ than if you’d written them yourself. But the meaning is diluted because your connection is weaker. And without meaning in your comms, your influence is gone. 

Inherently, communication isn’t about saying something well. It’s about being understood in a way that matters. That’s real influence.

Examples

You might be wondering, what is the real problem with AI comms? Let me show you some examples of where your influence is being undermined by AI. 

1. ‘Here’s the kicker’ is no longer a kicker

With AI writing, phrases are used over and over, and over again. Once upon a time, the phrase ‘here’s the kicker’ worked very well in communications (along with its cousins, ‘here’s the truth’). It worked because it created a pause and a slight moment of tension before the insight landed. But now that AI has taken over so much of the business communications we see and hear, it’s everywhere.

The problem is that when everything is a ‘kicker,’ nothing actually kicks. This phrase doesn’t make your next statement stand out. It just makes the reader cringe internally and scroll on past. Your audience has seen it so many times that instead of leaning in, they mentally skip ahead. The line that was meant to elevate your point now signals that something formulaic is coming. And no one really derives meaning from a machine’s point of view. 

George Bernard Shaw said, ‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.’ Formulaic writing undermines real communication, which in turn undermines your ability to influence. 

2. The overuse of em dashes is flattening your voice

The em dash (here’s an example —) was once a stylistic choice, but with AI tools it’s become the default. A well placed em dash has historically been fantastic. Used well, it can add rhythm and emphasis. And it’s a modern replacement for those tricky semi-colons and clunky parentheticals. 

But now it’s overused, and it creates a very particular cadence that is instantly recognisable as AI-assisted writing. Now there’s nothing wrong with utilising an AI assistant. But when your writing starts to sound like a system, rather than a person, your credibility subtly drops. Your audience may not even consciously know why, but they feel it deeply. 

Commentary in Harvard Business Review highlights that building trust and credibility is crucial for persuasive communication, and that audiences respond to speakers they experience as genuine and trustworthy, not just polished. Repetitive structures do the opposite because they signal automation, rather than authority. 

And while none of us want to make mistakes in our writing, readers would much prefer to read your authentically written work, with an occasional error, than the pitch-perfect repetition of AI writing. 

3. Formula over thought

When you rely on AI communications this tells your reader something, it tells them that you’re more concerned with how you sound rather than what you’re saying. It suggests that you’re relying on tools not just to shape the process, but also the thinking. 

Using AI to communicate is easy. But using it also becomes a sign to others that you’re turning to AI for a template for every conversation rather than relying on your original thinking. But it just can’t work in the long term because influence doesn’t come from sounding polished. It comes from being real, from sounding distinct, and from offering something of value to the listener.

Being the same undermines your influence

This week I was at the Global Speaker’s Summit in Cairns, and a friend of mine and I wore the same shirt. Navy blue with stripes. It gave both of us a good laugh, but it also got me thinking. You don’t want to walk into a room where everyone is wearing the same outfit. Even if you look amazing, perfectly styled, and impressive, you’re still utterly indistinguishable. 

This is exactly what’s happening with AI-led communication right now. The tools are elevating the baseline, that’s absolutely true. But they’re also compressing the differences. And it’s in the differences that your influence really lives (there’s a reason we call it a ‘unique selling point’). 

Embrace AI, but retain your humanity

The solution here is very simple. Keep the intelligence of AI, but lose the predictability. When it comes to communications, use the tools to brainstorm, to challenge your own thinking, to stretch, but not to structure. To truly influence, it’s your natural voice that has to shine through, your voice, and your ideas, even if it’s less ‘perfect’.

The leaders of today who are truly able to influence and create impact aren’t the ones who use AI the most, but the ones who still sound like themselves.

I’d love to hear your thoughts…